


Like Him, Like Her

by Anam_Writes



Series: princes love dragons; it's just a fact [1]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Golden Deer Route, First Crush, Fluff, POV Third Person Limited, Pre-Time Skip, first friend, no beta; we die like men, poetic claude, protective jeralt, there wasn't nearly enough about Claude's love of poetry in the game so here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-23
Updated: 2020-01-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22369474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anam_Writes/pseuds/Anam_Writes
Summary: Jeralt is worried about how close the Golden Deer's leader is getting to his daughter in their spare time. Little does he know, he has nothing to fear from Claude. In fact, he may just find that the two are just like another young couple that Jeralt knew at the monestary many years ago.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth & Claude von Riegan, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Series: princes love dragons; it's just a fact [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610308
Comments: 26
Kudos: 317





	Like Him, Like Her

**Author's Note:**

> The first thing I'm posting on here. It's short but I hope you all like it alright!

Jeralt knows what it was like to be a young man. A very, very, very long time ago he was one.

But he’ll never forget the impulses of it all: some warm or silly or harmless, some irrational, passionate, just stupid enough to be dangerous. That’s something he’d never had to worry about with Byleth. His daughter had never spent extended periods of time with kids her own age.

What’s more, she had never expressed interest in doing so.

Now she was stuffed into a room filled with other young ones for several hours a day and even more worrying, she’d seemed to have taken an interest in one of them.

The worst one.

Claude von Riegan

Sure there was Sylvain to watch and that Gloucester kid. But the eastern noble seemed uninterested in anyone unfit for political marriage and the skirt chaser at least wore his red flags with enough pride he could trust the kid to stay away.

But Claude was an unkown.

One of Jeralt’s trainees had recently been in deep shit for telling him a little too much about security protocal when he showed a bit of interest.

He was a flirt. He knew how to manipulate. He had made more secrets in his 18-years than Jeralt had managed to accumulate in a bit over a century.

Byleth absolutely adored him. He’d never seen her dote on someone so.

He’d caught her refurbishing and polishing a pair of used riding boots she’d bought with her salary every night for a week. When they were done she made a bee line for Claude on her free day.

Sure, her face hadn’t changed the whole time but Jeralt knew she was excited. She suggested he kick off his shoes and try them right in the middle of the grass field.

She started throwing flowers into her rotation of plants: sunflowers, specifically.

She’d take Claude past them on their Sunday morning walks and she’d furnish the table with them when she invited him to tea, which was often. She always had his favourite ready too. Even though the pine needles she needed to make it were expensive due to it’s foreign nature.

It was bad news. Nothing but trouble could come of it. Just watching the way the boy talked to her - always smiling and joking and sometimes even feigning a bit of embarrassment. He knew she was wrapped around his little finger. He had to.

He took Claude aside one day. Jeralt wanted to make it clear who he was dealing with.

“My daughter doesn’t take to strangers often. Especially boys her own age. She tends to avoid them” he said.

“Well, I am the house leader. I’m hard to avoid considering the circumstances.”

Jeralt wanted to call bull shit but remained level headed.

“I’m just letting you know I don’t have a problem defending my kid from little punks like you. Got it?”

Claude smiled, holding air in his puffed up cheeks before letting it out in a breathless laugh.

“Something funny, boy?”

Claude shook his head, waiting for the laughing to subside. “You sound exactly like her.”

The words rang in his head for the next few days. He watched and all of a sudden memories came flooding back

His daughter was gruff, slow to show a reaction. But sometimes, when Claude turned, her eyes softened just the tiniest bit. She smiled just a little.

She picked flowers for him and watched every micro expression he gave in response like she was committing it to memory.

She didn’t say much but it seemed like she would be perfectly able to listen to him for hours without end if only life weren’t getting in the way.

She was exactly like him.

He always looked at her and saw her mother but, besides the striking resemblance, she was his child through-and-through.

But that wasn’t the scariest part: Claude was, for an entirely different reason than he expected.

He was a tricky little shit disturber, sure, but once you got past all that, Claude was so much like his wife.

When it was almost time for their tea, or their walks or a shared meal Claude would sprint. The kid wasn’t late to his meetings with her - ever - but he would run like a mad man to get there as soon as he could. He would apologize for being on time because damn did he wish he could have gotten there sooner, spent just a second more playing a board game or drinking tea in silence or talking about whatever it is those two were always smiling about.

He encouraged her to eat with the others, to spend time with the others, Hell, to do anything bit sit alone like a sad sack in her personal time.

He would hum when they walked by the sunflowers.

He would read poetry and show her his favourites. Sometimes Jeralt would see them sitting together in the grass, under shade and Claude would just read passages of poetry about nothing in particular, just words he thought were pretty.

He was smart, wanted her take on everything he learned, everything he saw.

One night, when the kids had built a fire and started pairing off and getting in lines for dancing he watched the lordling take her by the hand and proceed to spin them around until the momentum knocked them over on the ground laughing.

Everything he saw reminded Jeralt more and more of her. These kids reminded him of them.

“Hey, kid,” Jeralt ushered the boy away one day. Byleth watched after them for a second before turning away. He knew she’d still have her eye on them, though. “We need to talk.”

“Uh oh,” Claude chuckled. “What did I do this time?”

“Nothing.”

“Is this another ‘stay away from my daughter or else’ talk then?” Claude did a deep voiced impression of Jeralt, trying not to crack a smile as he did.

The comparison was starting to get a little eerie.

“No. I just wanted you to know I’m happy Byleth has a friend like you.”

Claude froze, frowning a bit. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Okay then,” he nodded. The boy kicked his feet in the dirt before gulping. “Can I go now, sir? I don’t mean to be rude; it’s just -”

“You have plans,” Jeralt said shrugging. “Go on then.”

Even when she was just across the courtyard Claude sprinted back over.

He watched the two stroll lazily away towards the dining hall.

Jeralt shook his head “Maybe those kid’s will have a little more luck than us.”


End file.
